Anthropology: MLA Citation

In-Text Citations

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Images: MLA

General Guidelines

1) Author/Creator. Not available? Skip to #2.2) Title of image in italics. Not available? Image doesn’t have a title? Create brief descriptive title. (Photograph of horse running. Drawing of brain.) 3) Media of the image (Chart,Diagram,Graph, Illustration, Map, Photograph, Cartoon)4) Date of image. Not available? n.d.5) Title of where the image is located. Title of web page or title of article found in database.6) Website/database name of where image is located.7) Medium of publication. If online – Web. If in paper, Print. 8) If Web, then end with day of access, month and year. 01 Jan. 2011.9) Always end with a period. There is no retrieval URL in 7th edition MLA unless requested by Professor.

MLA Format: In-Text Citation

When you use outside sources, you want to 1) introduce them to the reader, 2) indicate a page number when applicable, and 3) show how this quote relates to what you are trying to say.

According to Howard Gardner the synthesizing mind is important for "selecting crucial information from the copious amounts of information available" (154). In my experience it is difficult to know which information is crucial.

Longer quotes should be indented.

Howard Gardner argues that schools should cultivate all 5 minds for the future:

It is up to the educational system as a whole -- the educational systems in the broadest sense -- to ensure that the ensemble of minds is cultivated. In one sense, this is a job of synthesis--making sure that all five kinds of minds are developed. But equally, it is an ethical obligation: in the years ahead, societies will not survive--let along thrive--unless as citizens we respect and culitvat ethe quintet of minds valorized here. (165)

It is important to not emphasize too much one mind over the other, but the different qualities they bring and how they work together.